Microfilm

I turned the small black knob to the right, feeling its ridged texture with my finger and thumb.

The microfilm reader whirred into action, gears inside spinning rapidly. I watched the words and images from the newspaper I was searching through whiz by in a complete blur. I was looking for an article from a particular year—let’s call it 1975.

Amid the smell of books (mostly good) and intense quiet, also sat state-of-the-art research machines, humming from time to time as users went on little quests for information.

With each little turn of the knob, I was closer to finding my article, until I overshot my target. With a sigh, I adjusted my approach, gently coaxing the knob in the opposite direction, attempting to circle back to the elusive September 1975 section of articles.

Once you found the year, you needed to start turning the other (slower) knob, steadily oscillating too far backward, then too far forward, until you found the piece you were looking for.

This was Googling in the 1980s…